Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall sp3.djvu/25

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16
POST-CAPTAINS OF 1812.

en flûte), and eleven or twelve French transports, laden with provisions, military stores, arms, and ammunition, and having on board several hundred troops, were captured by a British squadron under Vice-Admiral Harrington. We afterwards find him in the Edgar 74, Commodore Hotham, at the relief of Gibraltar by Lord Howe; and he appears to have been struck on the breast by a splinter from that ship’s mainmast, in the subsequent skirmish with the enemies’ combined fleets, off Cape Spartel, Oct. 20, 1782[1].

After the termination of the American war, Mr. Anderson served for three years on board the Barracouta cutter, employed in the suppression of smuggling. He subsequently proceeded to the West Indies, where he commanded a small armed vessel during the remainder of the peace.

At the commencement of the French revolutionary war, Mr. Anderson was honored with the notice of Sir John Laforey, whose flag-ship, the Trusty 50, he piloted into the proper anchorage at the capture of Tobago, April 15, 1793. On the return of that officer to the West Indies, Mr. Anderson was induced to relinquish his colonial command, and again enter the navy as a midshipman. His promotion to the rank of Lieutenant took place subsequent to the reduction of St. Lucia, during the siege of which island he conducted himself extremely well in the command of an express-boat, under the orders of Sir Hugh C. Christian.

After eleven years’ service in the West Indies, Lieutenant Anderson returned to England with his health considerably impaired, and but little hopes of recovery. When convalescent, he was appointed to the signal-station at North Yarmouth, where he obtained the approbation of Lord Duncan, and other flag-officers employed on the North Sea station.

At the renewal of hostilities, 1803, Lieutenant Anderson joined the Atlas 74. From that ship he exchanged into the Africaine 38, the charge of which frigate, and of a large homeward bound West India fleet, devolved upon him in consequence of the illness of her captain, who was attacked by a most malignant fever, which carried off nearly one-third